Labour urges swift action on local family doctors

Labour has secured an urgent report from health officials on the closure of a major doctor’s surgery in Brighton and the potential consequences of further closures or retirements. When Eaton Place surgery in Kemp Town closes in March, over 5,500 patients will have to find alternative care if they have not done so already.

Leader of the Labour and Co-operative group, Councillor Warren Morgan, will be calling for clarity and action at the city’s Health and Wellbeing Board on 9 December. He will say:

A BMA survey this year showed that six in ten GPs are considering early retirement, and this closure in my ward highlights the consequences when that happens. Patients are now scrambling for places at other surgeries, often some distance from where they live, whilst others wait for the health authorities to find a place for them. From what we can gather, the health authorities won’t.

This closure will put other GP surgeries under huge pressure at a time when we are asking them to do more in terms of cancer screening, smoking cessation and other public health priorities. The surgery which is closing is within sight of the Sussex County, and could add pressure on an already stretched A&E. Further retirements or closures would put the system under intolerable strain in the east of the city. NHS England and the local Clinical Commissioning Group need to grasp this situation urgently.

Recent figures have shown that the numbers of doctors training to take up GP practice are at their lowest for seven years, sparking fears there will soon be too few GPs to cope with the demands of a growing and ageing population. Waiting times are anticipated to increase to two weeks by April next year.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was forced to admit this week that he had to take his own children to A&E because he couldn't get a GP appointment after his Government scrapped GP access targets.